1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a health maintenance system and, more particularly, to a health maintenance system using a portable motion recorder and exercise machines for general health maintenance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Counting the number of footsteps covered in a day by a portable motion recorder, such as a pedometer, and setting a desired number of footsteps to be covered in a day to practice a necessary amount of motion are practiced prevalently to supplement lack of exercise and to improve health. In addition to the forgoing daily activity, physical exercise using exercise machines, such as an ergometric exercise bicycle and a treadmill, is performed positively for fatness prevention and slimming.
Body fat ratio is an effective criterion for the discrimination between fatness and leanness. Values of fatness and leanness are dependent on basic personal data, such as sex, age, height, weight and the like. Therefore, basic personal data is an important criterion also.
There have been proposed portable motion recorders and exercise machines capable of indicating a necessary amount of exercise and a proper amount of caloric intake according to basic personal data and body fat ratio. Such motion recorders and exercise machines are provided with a basic personal data input device and a fat ratio measuring device and are capable of giving accurate desired values to the users of the portable motion recorders and the exercise machines.
Energy consumption of a person is the sum of energy for basal metabolism just enough to maintain vital functions and energy for metabolism for living activities. It is noted that xe2x80x9cmetabolism for living activitiesxe2x80x9d means the physical and chemical processes excluding basal metabolism, which are produced in the person""s body when the person does daily activity, such as walking. When the amount of caloric intake of a person is greater than the person""s energy consumption, the person gains weight through lack of exercise. When the person exercises excessively, the energy consumption exceeds the amount of caloric intake.
The aforesaid portable motion recorder takes into consideration only the energy for basal metabolism and the energy for metabolism for living activities and does not take into consideration energy for exercise. The exercise machine counts only the energy consumed by exercise using the exercise machine and does not take into consideration the energy for basal metabolism and the energy for metabolism for living activities.
Therefore, it has been necessary for the comprehensive management of energy consumption to determine a necessary amount of exercise and a proper amount of caloric intake by processing information provided by the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine by a computer or the like.
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing problems and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a health maintenance system capable of easily carrying out centralized comprehensive health maintenance using a portable motion recorder and exercise machines.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a health maintenance system comprises: a portable motion recorder to be carried about by a user to measure the amount of motion for daily activities; and an exercise machine to be used in combination with the portable motion recorder, capable of providing the user with a predetermined exercise program and of measuring the amount of exercise performed by the user according to the exercise program; wherein the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine have communication functions for exchanging data, the portable motion recorder receives measured data from the exercise machine or the exercise machine receives measured data from the portable motion recorder through the communication functions, and the portable motion recorder received the measured data from the exercise machine or the exercise machine received the measured data from the portable motion recorder executes predetermined operations on the basis of the measured data measured by the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine and basic personal data on the user to provide information about health maintenance condition.
In this health maintenance system, it is preferable to store the basic personal data beforehand in the portable motion recorder when the same provides the information about health maintenance condition or in the exercise machine when the same provides the information about health maintenance condition. Preferably, the portable motion recorder receives the basic personal data together with the measured data through the communication functions from the exercise machine when the portable motion recorder provides the information about the health maintenance condition or the exercise machine receives the basic personal data together with the measured data through the communication functions from the portable motion recorder when the exercise machine provides the information about health maintenance condition. Preferably, the information about health maintenance condition includes at least either an amount of exercise necessary for the user or a proper amount of caloric intake. Preferably, the information about health maintenance condition further includes at least information about cardiopulmonary functions, information about physical composition, information about dynamic ability, the amount of exercise, the frequency of motions in a predetermined period or the amount of motion for daily activities.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a portable motion recorder to be carried about by a user to measure the amount of motion for daily activities, and to be used in combination with an exercise machine that provides the user with a predetermined exercise program and measures the amount of exercise performed by the user according to the exercise program comprises: a motion measuring unit that measures the amount of motion for daily activities, a communication unit that exchanges data with the exercise machine; a data processing unit that receives measured data measured by the exercise machine from the exercise machine through the communication unit and processes measured data measured by the motion measuring unit, the measured data measured by and received from the exercise machine and basic personal data on the user by predetermined operations; and an output unit that provides information about health maintenance condition on the user determined by the data processing unit.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, an exercise machine capable of providing a user with a predetermined exercise program and of measuring the amount of exercise performed by the user according to the exercise program and to be used in combination with a portable motion recorder to be carried about by the user to measure the amount of motion for daily activities comprises: a motion measuring unit that measures the amount of exercise performed by the user according to the exercise program; a communication unit that exchanges data with the portable motion recorder; a data processing unit that receives measured data measured by the portable motion recorder from the portable motion recorder through the communication unit and processes measured data measured by the motion measuring unit, the measured data measured by and received from the portable motion recorder and basic personal data on the user by predetermined operations; and an output unit that provides information about health maintenance condition on the user determined by the data processing unit.
According to the present invention, the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine exchange data through the communication functions, the portable motion recorder receives measured data from the exercise machine or the exercise machine receives measured data from the portable motion recorder through the communication functions, the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine process the measured data measured by the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine and the basic personal data by the predetermined calculating operations to provide the user with information about health maintenance condition. Thus a complicated work for applying the information provided by the portable motion recorder and the exercise machine to an external computer or the like is unnecessary and all the data on energy for basal metabolism, energy for metabolism for living activities and energy consumption by the exercise using the exercise machine, so that comprehensive, centralized health maintenance management can be easily achieved.